Guide to 2D/3D Contribution

[Karyuu]

As long as your application can export .PNG files, you can use whatever you want. However, applications like Flash and GIMP were made for entirely different things, and you are not going to be able to texture in Flash It's a very limited program in terms of the kind of work we need. Even GIMP fails sometimes when compared to Photoshop for certain tasks.

[ArcaneFalcon]

When you see people putting together sweet flash ui's, they're still typically doing a lot of the graphical work in photoshop and piecing it together in flash. For PS, using flash wouldn't really be feasible since it's all put together in paws.

[geostik]

couple of questions here. i'm new to PS and i first thought that i'll find something more advanced after finding news dating far back(years). first of all you should specify exactly what you need, or may need in the future. things such as landscape characters, texturing, level designers etc.
before posting this i've browsed the forum a little and see that there are quite a few guys that can take on bigger things, like those mentioned above.
you should make small work shops for each task and see who's up for it.
as for those asking about exporting 3d objects. it has absolutely no importance in what software are you working, work in the one that best suits you. there is one universal extension for 3d objects and this is .obj
you can model in any software and if what you've done is actually valuable the 3d artists from PS will surly take your obj mesh and export it into what they need.
someone asked where are the game models. these models cost good money if you were to buy them from a online shop, make some google searches to see some prices.
for the beginners i suggest them to try couple of free demo versions of more 3d packages and then settle with the one that you think it's better. i work in max, cos this is what i've got my hands in. both max and maya are, in my opinion, equal, still the absolute professionals in the biz(such as pixar) use maya. still pixar(search google) has developed their own render engine used by all companies that wanna make a film longer than half an hour, and they have their own made plugin for maya for animating. max script is very evolved and complex and you can turn max to fit your need in an industry, just like maya's script and that's why the possibilities are endless, making the softwares equal.
for max/maya questions first search the good old google, then post here. the softwares are under the same wing now(autodesk bought maya) and the principles apply to both packages.
i'm doing a personal project right now, then holiday, than i'll post some interesting stuff.
again, to underline what i've first wrote, something more specific about what to model/draw would be great.
OT: 1. how many guys do you currently have on scripting ?
      2. is this 100% hobby-like workflow for the curent artists, or are you making an effort to turn this in something more advanced, something to compete with modern pay-to -play RPG's
      3. ever thought to make some money out of this by keeping the registering free, and just giving some advantages to those who pay a very small fee such as improved account managing(statistics) gadgets on the screen showing extra stats, map. faster times for getting stuff. this won't ruin the game competitiveness since the by paying you don't get anything extra such as more attack damage/speed or exclusive items.
sorry for the ot, should have posted in the ideas thread, but i'm too tired, and these ideas came while writing.

[Karyuu]

first of all you should specify exactly what you need, or may need in the future. things such as landscape characters, texturing, level designers etc.

Oh, we need everything But we can't accept random jobs from random people - all our art is dictated by the settings team, and there are a lot of things we're not allowed to share with the general public yet, but work on behind the scenes. So making a public list of what we need isn't possible. When it comes to small things (like missing inventory art, texture contests, etc.) we'll definitely have more opportunities for community artists to contribute, but large things will remain a task for the internal art team, or official team applicants. I encourage you to fill out an application if you think you'll have time to devote to longterm development. If you won't have the time but are still interested in contributing, send me an email or a PM and we'll discuss possible tasks. (Be sure to tell me what kind of art you are interested in making, in that case - textures, architectural models, organic creatures, etc.)

1. how many guys do you currently have on scripting ?

What sort of scripting are you referring to? Can you provide some examples?

2. is this 100% hobby-like workflow for the curent artists, or are you making an effort to turn this in something more advanced, something to compete with modern pay-to -play RPG's

Of course we would love for PS to compete with completed and professional MMOs, but it will forever remain in its own category. PlaneShift is going to remain a 100% volunteer-based project, with developers working on it in their free time.

3. ever thought to make some money out of this by keeping the registering free, and just giving some advantages to those who pay a very small fee such as improved account managing(statistics) gadgets on the screen showing extra stats, map. faster times for getting stuff.

Yes, this has been brought up many times over the years. You are free to donate to the project out of the goodness of your heart, but we are very much against giving people anything for donating. All PS players are meant to have equal access to everything in the game, so we are not going to mark those who give the project money as "special" players.

[geostik]

thanks for the fast response.
you makes sense about the exact things to be modeled, and about gold. i personally browsed more than 10 browser games which apply the principle mentioned above and the fact that you are against this says a lot about your beliefs.
scripting to me means visual C as i now found out, or other scripting program you use for making the artificial intelligence and stuff for the game. i asked because i at first look, being experienced with more advanced games created by hundreds of pros, the game seemed rough. the walking, the object collision(very important) and the player interface, all seemed to me very unfriendly
i'll make some time tomorrow and post in the right sections some of my ideas..... 01:16 GMT+2 here :|

[Karyuu]

We have maybe... 8 active programmers, I think, along with three active artists and two writers. These are all official, accepted, "full-time" developers. (There are more, but they are inactive for a bit due to vacations, moving, etc.) We have a lot of prospects as well (team applicants) that help us expand the game, which are on the road to dev status.